Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017/07/27 MASON COUNTY LODGING TAX ADVISORY COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes Commissioners'Chambers 411 North 5T" Street, Shelton, WA 98584 Thursday, July 27, 2017 9:00 a.m. Members in Attendance: Chair Terri Drexler, Shaun Tucker and Duane Wilson. Heidi McCutcheon arrived at 9:45 a.m. Absent: Kelly Bergh. Chair Drexler called the meeting to order at 9:12 a.m. Shaun/Duane moved and seconded to approve the April 13, 2017 meeting minutes. Motion carried. The process allowed a 20 minute Q&A session with each requestor and because Heidi is a LTAC member and a requestor of funds for VIC's, she was recused from voting on funding VIC's. Review of Proposals—Visitor Information Centers North Mason Chamber of Commerce Request Stephanie Rowland, North Mason Chamber of Commerce, spoke to her request for $40,700 in 2018 for Visitor Information Services. This includes funding for a VIC in Union. Q&A from LTAC members - Space dedicated to the VIC in the leased building in Belfair. The VIC uses shared space and staff with the North Mason Chamber of Commerce. Shaun raised concern with the rent being a 1/3 of the total rent cost while the telephone/internet is 1/4 of the total telephone cost. The 1/3 allocation is based on three functions in their space—Chamber, licensing and VIC. There has been a tremendous spike in the website traffic analysis and LTAC asked what changed. Stephanie stated there is more business driven through explorehoodcanal.com and through the North Mason COC website, which has been updated. There was a discussion of how to extrapolate those people who come in for licensing from those people from out-of-Mason County looking for visitor services. Stephanie stated the State won't provide that information but they do have a sign-in book in the VIC. She sees this VIC as a hub for information and they have a lot of foot traffic. The concern from LTAC is who is coming in for visitor services and who are just local residents coming in for licensing. Shaun noted that the Union location is getting more documented walk-in customers and this goes back to the fundamental question of the value of VIC's or is it just a local service. Duane commented the lodging tax probably pays a bigger share of the Chambers expenses than what we are getting in services. Shelton Mason Chamber of Commerce Heidi McCutcheon, Shelton Mason Chamber of Commerce, presented information for her 2018 funding request for the three VIC's the Chamber manages—Shelton Chamber office, Caboose which is unstaffed but monitored by the Chamber and the Hoodsport location which has paid staff who coordinate schedules for nearly 20 unpaid volunteers. The total request is for $70,000. In 2016, nearly 18,000 visitors were served in Hoodsport. They are looking at creating t-shirts and sweatshirts to supplement the tourism revenue. Lodging Tax Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 27, 2017 Q&A from LTAC members— Heidi explained that 20% of the Chamber administrative wage (based on staff time spent on VIC service duties) and the full wage of the Hoodsport volunteer coordinator team go towards the wage expense. Rent- $150 monthly for caboose; remainder amount is for Hoodsport location. There was a discussion of foot traffic. They maintain a Hood Canal Visitor Information FB page along with Shelton Chamber FB page. The Chamber receives $31,000 from the City of Shelton lodging tax; travel and training cost is primarily Mark&Sam, who attended a conference for VIC's in Puyallup and Park Service informational trainings; tourism mileage is used to drive to Quilcene for maps Cmmr. Drexler asked about training staff for familiarization of area attractions; Heidi responded that it is a small area and volunteers are familiar with the area, and they hold volunteer appreciation events at local venues that familiarizes the volunteers with the local venues. The total scores from LTAC are: 308 for North Mason Chamber; 336 points for the Shelton Mason Chamber. Available funding for VIC's is $90,900 and the total requests are $110,700 so there is 82% available of the total requested amount. Based on this formula, that would be $57,400 for Shelton Chamber and $33,400 for the north mason chamber Kelly submitted her score sheets and recommendation - $50,200 to Shelton Chambers; $40,700 to North Mason Chamber. Duane/Shaun moved and seconded to award 82% of the requests.She/ton Chamber of Commerce, $57,400 and North Mason Chamber, $'33,500 for 2018 Visitor Information Services. Motion carried. The LTAC took a break at 10:10 a.m. Review of Proposals -Tourism Development& Marketing Services Northwest Event Organizers, Inc. Rachel Hansen, Northwest Event Organizers, Inc. presented her request for $206,000 which is focused on events, attracting families, and highlighting the County's natural resources including the oyster market. She is working with NOAA on a"Shellfish Trail"that starts in Astoria and goes up the coast to Canada. Q&A from LTAC members - Besides shellfish, Rachel would focus on helping volunteers to promote established unique events that make Mason County stand out, this would include printed advertisement. Go after those that follow niche markets—such as railroad, Paul Bunyan and oysters. Strategy to execute— Rachel stated she attends local events and collects data, photos and videos. Her strategy would be to obtain a lot of footage and share with as many people/businesses as possible. Rachel has website design experience; she would add more content and engagement with the public to the established explorehoodcanal.com website. Focus on families and those with income who stay at lodging facilities along with the younger generation. Social media — Rachel stated social media data can be manipulated; she would post a lot and share and track the interaction with the public. She believes in boosting to specific audiences. She would focus on what Mason County has to offer and target those audiences. Budget—"Partner Associations &Memberships"—for those memberships that Rachel believes Mason County should be a part of such as the Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission and the LTAC Page 12 Lodging Tax Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 27, 2017 Culinary Loop. Printing & marketing Tangibles— Rachel believes in print along with the website. She plans to print 30,000 magazines and expand distribution ($20,000) to airports, ferries and to those areas where there are interested audiences. Rachel intends to create an itinerary for specific audiences. Cmmr. Drexler pointed out the fjord is the focus of the magazine and asked what Rachel's thoughts are on maintaining the brand of"Explore Hood Canal." It was pointed out the content of the magazine would belong to Mason County. The magazine would be linked through the website and Rachel plans to share the stories to specific audiences. Cmmr. Drexler asked how Rachel would keep the momentum for target audiences while expanding the focus. Rachel responded she would stay with the branding but expand to incorporate other folks who would find Mason County a great place to visit. Shaun stated he has found that other generations adapt to new forms of communication, i.e. social media. Jill Andrews Jill Andrews presented her proposal for 2018 Tourism Development and Marketing Services in the amount of$206,000. She approached the proposal as a leadership role for in-market and out-of- market. She would become a resident of Mason County if awarded the contract and become familiar with Mason County to promote the county and foster the relationships with the established associations in order to reach a broader market. Her proposal includes a print map for in-market visitor experience and out-of-market destination marketing and a flat map. She doesn't see a lot of change to the website and it is now time for a next step. Q&A from LTAC members Target audience will be families— biggest spenders and longest stayers; today's day trippers are tomorrow's overnight stays and she would capitalize on the long term. Include the military audience for the adventures. She would become a resident in Mason County but maintain her residence in Des Moines that would reduce travel time to that area and it keeps her in the marketing loop of that area. Writing content—she would do a lot of the writing but prefers to use those that already do that; therefore she would also contract for that service. Social media —Jill uses social media but hard to track the audience. She does believe social media is a great way to share information. She believes in advertising to existing markets and expanding the market. She talked about Pandora ad buys and participating in co-op ad buys due to the cost. She believes in smart buying that has good, trackable distribution. Website maintenance— has done some web work but would outsource the day-to-day management. For content, that would be from her and from the community. She would attend the event meetings and establish a resource list. Her budget would focus on off-season and shoulder-season by advertising events in those seasons. Blue Collar Agency Vince Ready— presented Blue Collar's proposal for 2018 Tourism Development and Marketing Services in the amount of$206,000 plus additional options for an additional $17,000. Blue Collar focuses on a digital strategy because millennials do have disposable income; in their proposal LTAC Page 13 Lodging Tax Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 27, 2017 other generations do have more leisure time and resources and they intend to broaden the message and target families and the empty-nesters. They will be creating the fall series video that involves families and kids. Activities and amenities are why people come to visit and Blue Collar tells the story of what Mason County has to offer. They are interesting in renewing relationships with local marketing groups such as the Olympic Culinary Loop. Focus social media to the audience who will attend certain events. As for a local presence, they commit to be in Mason County every quarter for 3 days to develop content. Q&A from LTAC Members - This proposal does not include funding a local representative and to mitigate the distance they would create a Slack channel. Budget: $24,000 for boots on the grounds charge—would not charge for travel but would charge per diem for meals/lodging. Print materials—they envision a pocket map and integrate branding for the local areas with itineraries on the back of the map. Influencer marketing —Instagram to targeted markets and in their proposal included an option that for an additional $6,000 they would include influencer marketing such as news releases. Festival support—they propose a before and after strategy. Contact event organizers two months before the event, help with marketing, develop strategy for out-of-area marketing and then contact after the event and build content. Media spend — primarily for social media marketing. Blue Collar contracts for filming the videos. They intend to attend two or three events each year, they have the infrastructure built so would just need to execute. Discussion of LTAC members Shaun pointed out there is a clear difference in strategy. Heidi likes the platform that Blue Collar has established but it seems it's a college age target and she doesn't like the"party" promotion aspect. Not in favor of paying $24K to pay for somebody to be part of our community. Rachel has established Mason County relationships and knows the community. Jill has contacts in the greater Seattle area that could build the trip itineraries and is involved with the Olympic Peninsula Group. To maintain what's there but take it to the next step and promote the events and festivals, she feels both Rachel and Jill are the front runners. Events &festivals discussion —significant events are Oysterfest, Hama Hama Oyster Rama and Forest Festival which are in the May— October span. Heidi stated the greatest asset Mason County is offering is an experience and selling that story. Shaun stated this comes down to utilizing an individual vs. team. A professional firm (Blue Collar) has an arsenal of talent and skills. He believes print is ancient. We need a balance. Duane agrees we need a balance and believes the strategy is not balanced right now. Although Blue Collar did offer more assistance to their event(Blue Grass in the Forest) they didn't see a large amount of participants that said it was because of social media. LTAC Page 14 Lodging Tax Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 27, 2017 LTAC member score: Northwest Event Organizers, 440 total score Blue Collar, 381 total score Jill Andres, 359 total score Kelly's recommendation is to award to Northwest Event Organizers. Cmmr. Drexler appreciates the"boots on ground approach"from Rachel and Jill. The most important element is the collaboration between festivals and organizations. She sees this contract as the start of a destination marketing organization (DMO). She hates to lose the look of Blue Collar and is worried that brand could be lost. She wants to see seamless branding between all the materials (website, print, social media). She likes the cooperative marketing strategy from Jill. She likes the stronger approach on enhancing the visitor experience. Shaun stated he had a vision of more in-county presence but contracting out certain elements. There is a difference between marketing events and promoting the county. He has a tendency to lean towards firms that have a track record for what we are trying to accomplish. Duane noted there hasn't been an increase in lodging tax revenue since we contracted with Blue Collar. It was pointed out there are less lodging rooms available. Heidi pointed out there has been a reduction in event and festival support. Shaun stressed the importance of having a good product. We are supposed to be targeting the out-of-county audience. He believes a change of course is a mistake as is going heavy to print. Social media is not simple and it's important to maintain that reach. He believes Blue Collar has painted a different picture of what Mason County is about— it's relevant and current. Cmmr. Drexler commented that by building the demand, we build the market. Heidi pointed out that aquaculture is a market to build. Vince Ready shared lodging tax data from DOR- 2013 $279K; 2016 - $373K. A $100,000 increase since Blue Collar has had the contract. Duane stated he leans toward NW Organizers. Heidi stated she is torn between Rachel and Jill. Based on scores, Heidi is ok going with NW Organizers. Shaun stated he leans toward Blue Collar. He favors having an outside influence. Cmmr. Drexler appreciates the concern with switching gears; creative content is important. If NW Organizers is awarded, the scope of work and budget will be negotiated based on conversations with LTAC to address their concerns— maintain current brand, stay current and relevant, market to outside of county. There was consensus to recommend to the County Commissioners to contract with NW organizers for 201812019 and the contract de velopment will be based on conversations with LTAC. Shaun pointed out he is cautious to bring everything into the county and wants to be certain there are conversations with Rachel. LTAC Page 15 Lodging Tax Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 27, 2017 Cmmr. Drexler believes there needs to be a person in the county to build tourism. Public Comment— none Calendar—the next meeting will be October. Recruitment, quarterly reports and proposed by- laws that will allow a proxy vote by members. The meeting adjourned at 12:45 p.m. LODGING TAX ADVISORY COMMITTEE MASON COUNTY, WASHINGTON ATTEST: ' •�l-Q- LTAC Clerk 19 Cmmr.Terri Drexler, Chair LTAC Page 16